[JURIST] The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) [official website] has threatened [statement] to suspend Pakistan from the Commonwealth if it does not end emergency rule by November 22. The group also called on Pakistan to release all detainees, restore the constitution and the independence of the judiciary, and have Pakistani
[read more]

[JURIST] A Japanese parliamentary committee Monday approved a controversial anti-terror bill re-authorizing Japan's support mission for US operations in the Indian Ocean. Under the bill, Japanese ships will be barred from refueling US ships involved in combat or humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, but will be allowed to refuel ships involved
[read more]

[JURIST] The White House must preserve all of its e-mail records by saving back-up disks, United States District Court Judge Henry Kennedy ordered [PDF text; press release] Monday. The order was a blow to the Bush administration, which has been fighting lawsuits brought by private advocacy groups Citizens for Responsibility
[read more]

[JURIST] Pakistani lawyers began returning to work in some of the country's lower courts Monday, one week after thousands of lawyers and law students protested against President Pervez Musharraf's proclamation of emergency rule [JURIST reports], suspension of the constitution and dismissal of the country's Supreme Court. Following a Pakistan Bar
[read more]

[JURIST] Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official profile] told parliament Monday that the government was planning to release 400 more Palestinian prisoners later this month, adding to the release [JURIST report] last month of more than 80 Palestinian prisoners. The releases are meant as a gesture of good will toward
[read more]

[JURIST] Indonesian prosecutors on Monday announced the breakdown of court-ordered settlement negotiations with lawyers representing Tommy Suharto [BBC report], son of former President Haji Mohammad Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Indonesian law requires that parties try mediation to resolve civil disputes before courts may proceed with a case, but
[read more]

[JURIST] Pakistani Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said Monday that the newly-reconstituted Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] will next week resume consideration of legal challenges to the eligibility of President Pervez Musharraf [official website] to run for re-election while remaining Army Chief of Staff. Qayyum said that newly-installed Chief
[read more]

[JURIST] The Civil Rights Division [official website] of the US Department of Justice is stepping up its enforcement of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act [official backgrounder], according to a report from McClatchy Newspapers. The law, commonly known as the "Motor Voter Act," is designed to make it easier for
[read more]

[JURIST] The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly [official website] Monday criticized procedures used by the UN Security Council and the European Union for blacklisting individuals and organizations on its terror list, adopting a draft report [text; press release] by parliamentarian Dick Marty [personal website; JURIST news archive] that characterized the
[read more]

[JURIST] The government of Pakistan said Monday that a Tuesday protest march planned by former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [personal website] violates the declaration of emergency [PDF text] announced by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [official website; BBC profile] and will not be allowed to take place. The protesters would
[read more]

[JURIST] Australian prosecutors dismissed a terrorist training charge against Izhar Ul-Haque [CagePrisoners profile] Monday after the New South Wales Supreme Court found that two officials belonging to the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) [official website] had violated his rights by kidnapping and falsely imprisoning him. Judge Michael Adams found that
[read more]

[JURIST] The crew of the Cosco Busan, which leaked some 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the San Fransisco Bay [IndyBay report] after colliding with a bridge last week, is being held for questioning by federal investigators as a criminal investigation into the oil spill begins, the US Coast Guard
[read more]

[JURIST] Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], better known in Western media as "Chemical Ali," will not be transferred to Iraqi custody for execution until a legal debate on the executions is resolved, the US embassy in Iraq said Monday. US spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said that there are
[read more]

[JURIST] Ousted Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] said in a statement reported by Pakistani media Monday that he and other Pakistan Supreme Court judges were removed by General Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule early this month because an independent judiciary would have prevented Musharraf from
[read more]

[JURIST] Former Cambodian Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith were arrested Monday and brought before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Ieng Sary and his wife, who served as Minister for Social Affairs, have been charged with war crimes
[read more]

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] has transferred former Bosnian Croat soldier Miroslav Bralo [ICTY case backgrounder] to Sweden to serve the remainder of his 20-year prison sentence, DPA reported Monday. Christer Isaksson, head of security for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service [official
[read more]